Who thought up the term "Enemy Combatant"? Maybe Rumsfeld.

Terrorist school

Jose Padilla, serving 17 year sentence  for "conspiring to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas", (a prerequisite for employment at the CIA) lost his suit against the Bush Administration's interrogation expert John Yoo.  Padilla, who is Muslim, claimed that the interrogation methods used by the US authorities, given legal backing by John Yoo amounted to torture.

The methods used against Padilla were exposure to extreme heat, threats of increased torture and death, and sleep deprivation.  He claims he was also prevented from practicing his religion. Yoo gave the legal go ahead as the architect of the measures to be used according to the suit.

Such claims seem almost incredible, after all, it would be illegal to torture someone in the US wouldn't it?  We are country that abides by the "rule of law". I see that term all the time in the serious journals of capital.  Racism and sexual discrimination is illegal by law too that's why it doesn't exist in America just like Iran having no gay people.

The greatest thing about our Democracy is this "rule of law" thing.  See, Padilla is not a prisoner of war.  He is not a soldier.  He is not a common criminal.  Padilla is an "enemy combatant". We know this because the Pentagon says so. Mr. Yoo, Bush's interrogation method Czar, is immune from prosecution because "enemy combatants" are not entitled to the same protections as criminal defendants or soldiers. If this man had only exercised his freedom of choice and been a soldier or a common criminal, he would have some rights.  That he chose to be an "enemy combatant" like those guys in Guantanamo Bay, is not the fault of the folks in the Pentagon or Congress who have only the interests of the American people at heart.

From what I can understand, Padilla failed to prove that Yoo's actions were illegal "beyond debate."
according to the presiding Judge. Mr' Padilla just didn't "clear that hurdle" Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal informs us.  These judges are no fools, they're good debaters, if Mr. Yoo had done anything wrong our great justice system would have caught it.  As Bob Dylan reminded us, "The ladder of the law has no top and no bottom".

The people in Congress and the Pentagon are good men and women, people with integrity.  We are lucky to have people like them representing us to the world.  It's great to be free.